Political leaders and leadership Books

Book Synopsis.- Introduction..- Presidentialism and Civil-Military Relations: Literature Review, Cross-National Evidence, and Key Propositions..- Historical Overview of Presidential-Military Relations in Brazil in 1985-2022..- The March Towards Abdication: The Role of the Brazilian Congress in Civil-Military Relations..- Explaining Extreme Militarization under Bolsonaro..- The Impact of Executive-Legislative Relations and Civil-Military Relations on Defense Spending..- One Step Forward, One Step Back: The Impact of the Defense Ministry on Defense Policymaking in Brazil.Conclusion: Brazil in Comparative Perspective.

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Book SynopsisIn recent decades the history of premodern states and empires has undergone major revision. At the heart of this process stood the court, encompassing the household as well as government institutions. This volume for the first time brings together the fruits of research on royal courts from antiquity to the modern world, from Asia to Europe. The authors are acknowledged specialists in their own fields, but they address themes relevant for all courts: the inner and outer dimensions of court architecture as well as staff organizations; the connections between court, capital, and realm; the relationship of the ruler with relatives and other elites. This volume pioneers comparative history combining a rich empirical orientation with a critical assessment of theoretical perspectives. This title is available online in its entirety in Open Access Contributors: Tülay Artan, Gojko Barjamovic, Peter Fibiger Bang, Jeroen Duindam, Sabine Dabringhaus, Nadia Maria El Cheikh, Ebba Koch, Metin Kunt, Paul Magdalino, Rosamond McKitterick, Ruth Macrides, Rolf Strootman, Isenbike Togan, Maria Antonietta Visceglia, and Andrew Wallace-Hadrill.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of figures Royal Courts in Dynastic States and Empires, Jeroen Duindam FROM ASSYRIA TO ROME Pride, Pomp and Circumstance: Palace, Court and Household in Assyria 879 – 612 BCE, Gojko Barjamovic Hellenistic Court Society: The Seleukid Imperial Court under Antiochos the Great, 223-187 BCE, Rolf Strootman The Roman Imperial Court: Seen and Unseen in the Performance of Power, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill Court and State in the Roman Empire – Domestication and Tradition in Comparative Perspective, Peter Fibiger Bang SUCCESSORS AND PARALLELS IN EAST AND WEST Court and Capital in Byzantium, Paul Magdalino A King on the Move: The Place of an Itinerant Court in Charlemagne’s Government, Rosamond McKitterick Court Historiography in Early Tang China: Assigning a Place to History and Historians at the Palace, Isenbike Togan To be a Prince in the Fourth/Tenth-Century Abbasid Court, Nadia Maria El Cheikh Ceremonies and the City: The Court in Fourteenth-Century Constantinople, Ruth Macrides THE EARLY MODERN WORLD The Pope’s Household and Court in the Early Modern Age, Maria Antonietta Visceglia The Monarch and Inner-Outer Court Dualism in Late Imperial China, Sabine Dabringhaus Turks in the Ottoman Imperial Palace, İ. Metin Kunt The Mughal Audience Hall: A Solomonic Revival of Persepolis in Form of a Mosque, Ebba Koch Royal Weddings and the Grand Vezirate: Institutional and Symbolic Change in the Early Eighteenth Century, Tülay Artan Versailles, Vienna, and Beyond: Changing Views of Household and Government in Early Modern Europe, Jeroen Duindam List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisThe Politics of Female Households is the first collection that seeks to integrate ladies-in-waiting into the master narrative of early modern court studies. Presenting evidence and analysis of the multifarious ways in which ‘women above stairs’ shaped the European courts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it argues for a re-assessment of their political influence. The cultural agency of ladies-in-waiting is viewed in the reflection of portraiture, pamphlets and masques: their political dealings and patronage are revealed through analysis of letters, family networks, career patterns, gift exchange and household structures, as well as their activities in the fields of intelligence-gathering and espionage. By concentrating on a previously neglected area of female agency, this collection demonstrates clearly that the political climate of Europe was often shaped outside the male-dominated institutions of government and administration. Contributors include: Helen Graham-Matheson, Hannah Leah Crummé, Katrin Keller, Vanessa de Cruz, Birgit Houben, Dries Raeymaekers, Janet Ravenscroft, Una McIlvenna, Rosalind K. Marshall, Oliver Mallick, Cynthia Fry, Nadine Akkerman, Sara J. Wolfson, Fabian Persson, and Jeroen Duindam.Trade Review"This is an important work for the emergent field of gendered court politics. It is logically structured and beautifully produced, with colour images of artworks appearing within a page of their having been discussed. It would be of interest for scholars and students of early modern court culture or gender studies, or to specialists seeking fresh insights concerning the biographies of particular queens from the early modern period, or of regents or ladies who exerted power within the specified courtly households." Elizabeth Reid, The University of Western Australia. In: Parergon 35.1 (2018), pp. 141-142. "These chapters, valuable as they are, only begin to open up the large subject of how the activities of court ladies have been variously represented and misrepresented through cultural discourses and visual sources; and how cultural codes and social conventions constrained and shaped the roles women were able to play within courts. Much work remains to be done on these topics, but this collection unquestionably provides a valuable start." R. Malcolm Smuts, University of Massachusetts, Boston. In: Early Modern Women, Vol. 9, No. 2 (2015). "An excellent recent collection in the study of royal households with deep relevance for both royal and court studies" Elena Woodacre (University of Winchester) and Cathleen Sarti (University of Mainz). In: Royal Studies Journal, Vol. 2 (2015), p. 16.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements, Abbreviations, List of illustrations, List of contributors Introduction Nadine Akkerman and Birgit Houben PART 1. TUDOR ENGLAND 1.‘Petticoats and Politics: Elisabeth Parr and Female Agency at the Early Elizabethan Court’ Helen Graham-Matheson 2.‘Jane Dormer’s Recipe for Politics: A Refuge Household in Spain for Mary Tudor’s Ladies-in-waiting’ Hannah Leah Crummé PART 2. HABSBURGS I. THE IMPERIAL COURT IN VIENNA 3.‘Ladies-in-waiting at the Imperial Court of Vienna from 1550 to 1700: Structures, Responsibilities and Career Patterns’ Katrin Keller 4.‘“In service to my Lady, the Empress, as I have done every other day of my life”: Margarita of Cardona, Baroness of Dietrichstein and Lady-in-waiting of Maria of Austria’ Vanessa de Cruz II. THE COURT IN THE SPANISH NETHERLANDS 5.‘Women and the Politics of Access at the Court of Brussels: The Infanta Isabella’s Camareras Mayores (1598-1633)’ Birgit Houben & Dries Raeymaekers 6.‘Dwarfs – and a Loca – as Ladies’ Maids at the Spanish Habsburg Courts’ Janet Ravenscroft PART 3. FRANCE 7.‘ “A Stable of Whores”?: The “Flying Squadron” of Catherine de Medici’ Una McIlvenna 8.‘In Search of the Ladies-in-Waiting and Maids of Honour of Mary, Queen of Scots: A Prosoprographical Analysis of the Female Household’ Rosalind K. Marshall 9.‘Clients and Friends: The Ladies-in-waiting at the Court of Anne of Austria (1615-66)’ Oliver Mallick PART 4. THE STUART COURTS 10.‘Perceptions of Influence: The Catholic Diplomacy of Queen Anna and Her Ladies, 1601-4’ Cynthia Fry 11.‘The Goddess of the Household: The Masquing Politics of Lucy Harington-Russell, Countess of Bedford’ Nadine Akkerman 12.‘The Female Bedchamber of Queen Henrietta Maria: Politics, Familial Networks and Policy, 1626-40’ Sara J. Wolfson PART 5. THE SWEDISH COURT 13.‘Living in the House of Power: Women at the Early Modern Swedish Court’ Fabian Persson Epilogue ‘The Politics of Female Households: Afterthoughts’ Jeroen Duindam Bibliography Index of Names

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Book SynopsisLaw and Empire provides a comparative view of legal practices in Asia and Europe, from Antiquity to the eighteenth century. It relates the main principles of legal thinking in Chinese, Islamic, and European contexts to practices of lawmaking and adjudication. In particular, it shows how legal procedure and legal thinking could be used in strikingly different ways. Rulers could use law effectively as an instrument of domination; legal specialists built their identity, livelihood and social status on their knowledge of law; and non-elites exploited the range of legal fora available to them. This volume shows the relevance of legal pluralism and the social relevance of litigation for premodern power structures.Table of ContentsNotes on editors and contributors Acknowledgements Introduction Part I. Legal Authority and Imperial Frameworks 1 Polly Low, ‘Law, Authority and Legitimacy in the Athenian Empire’ 2 Harries, Jill, ´Roman Law from City State to World Empire´ 3 Karen Gottschang Turner, Laws, Bureaucrats, and Imperial Women in China’s Early Empires 4 Akarli, Engin: ‘The Ruler and Law Making in the Ottoman Empire’ 5 Härter, Karl, ‘The Early Modern Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (1495-1806): a Multi-layered Legal System’. Part II. Institutionalising Empire: Practices of Lawmaking and Adjudication 6 Hurvitz, Nimrod, ‘The Contribution of Early Islamic Rulers to Adjudication and Legislation: the Case of the Mazalim Tribunals’ 7 Rhijn, Carine van, ‘Charlemagne and the Government of the Frankish Countryside’ 8 Królikowska, Natalia, ´The law factor in Ottoman- Crimean Tatar Relations in the Early Modern Period´ 9 Guy, R. Kent, ‘Qing Imperial Justice? The Case of Li Shiyao’ Part III. Legal Pluralism in Empires: Encounters and Responses 10 Humfress, Caroline, ‘Thinking through legal pluralism: ‘Forum shopping’ in the Later Roman Empire 11 Hoppenbrouwers, Peter, ‘Leges Nationum and Ethnic Personality of Law in Charlemagne’s Empire’ 12 Anastasopoulos, Antonios, ‘Non-Muslims and Ottoman Justice(s?)’ 13 Murphy, Neil, ‘Royal Grace, Royal Punishment: Ceremonial Entries and the Pardoning of Criminals in France, c. 1440-1560’ 14 Haar, Barend ter, ‘Divine violence to Uphold Moral Values. The Casebook of an Emperor Guan Temple in Hunan Province in 1851-1852’ Index

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Book SynopsisThis book offer a biography of a key East Central European ruler, Vladislaus Henry, who ruled the Margraviate of Moravia from 1198 to 1222 and, in cooperation with his brother, King Přemysl Otakar I of Bohemia, was involved in the transformation of the Holy Roman Empire into a free union of Princes. The study also describes the successful modernisation of Moravia and Bohemia during the 13th century, and reflects on the beginnings of the politically emancipated community of the Moravians, which was defined by land values. The work thus draws attention to a previously overlooked dimension of the European Middle Ages, including the history of not only states and nations but also of lands.Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgements vii List of Illustrations ix Abbreviations xxi Map xxiv 1 A Remote Mirror 1 2 An Heir 12 1 The Years of Fame and False Hopes 16 2 A Witness to a Dying Time 27 3 The First Man in the Duchy 45 3 The Margrave 61 1 The Epilogue of the Ducal Age 66 2 The Nuremberg Mission 80 3 Two Moravias 100 4 The December Agreement 112 5 From Hedwig to Heilwidis 134 4 The Land 141 1 The Ruler 145 2 The Governor 157 3 The Manager 168 4 The Founder 181 5 The Patron 205 5 Memory 223 1 Gerlach and the Others 227 2 The Gracious Duke 234 3 It Happened One Night 246 6 Legacy 254 1 From Margraves to a Margraviate 257 2 Transformation on the Periphery 277 3 The Making of Central Europe 284 Appendices 1 The Margraves of Moravia of the Přemyslid Period 297 2 Vladislaus’ Lineage 298 Bibliography 300 1 Sources 300 2 Literature 306 Index 337

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Book SynopsisThe dynastic centre and the provinces were linked by agents and ritual occasions. This book includes contributions by specialists examining these connections in late imperial China, early modern Europe, and the Ottoman empire, suggesting important revisions and an agenda for comparison. This title is available online in its entirety in Open AccessTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Editors and Contributors List of Figures and Maps Jeroen Duindam, Introduction PART ONE AGENTS Jürgen Osterhammel, The Imperial Viceroy: Reflections on an Historical Type İ. Metin Kunt, Devolution from the Centre to the Periphery: an Overview of Ottoman Provincial Administration Yingcong Dai, Broken Passage to the Summit: Nayancheng’s Botched Mission in the White Lotus War R. Kent Guy, Routine Promotions: Li Hu and the Dusty Byways of Empire Christian Büschges, Ceremonial demarcations. The viceregal court as space of political communication in the Spanish monarchy (Valencia, Naples, and Mexico 1621-1635) Sabine Dabringhaus, The Ambans of Tibet – Imperial Rule at the Inner Asian Periphery PART TWO INTERACTIONS Patricia Ebrey, Remonstrating against Royal Extravagance in Imperial China Helen Watanabe-O’Kelly, ‘True and Historical Descriptions’? European Festivals and the Printed Record Neil Murphy, Ceremonial Entries and the Confirmation of Urban Privileges in France, c. 1350-1550 Margit Thøfner, ‘Willingly we follow a gentle leader…’: Joyous Entries into Antwerp Michael G. Chang, Historical Narratives of the Kangxi Emperor's Inaugural Visit to Suzhou, 1684 Jeroen Duindam, Towards a comparative understanding of rulership: discourses, practices, patterns Index INTRODUCTION JEROEN DUINDAM Throughout global history empires have been expanding and contracting, rising and declining. New dynasties challenged their predecessors, only to be ousted in their turn. Conquerors stunned their contemporaries by overrunning huge landmasses, but their successors frequently proved unable to maintain even a semblance of unity. Chinese history, at first glance the epitome of continuity, hides repeated and protracted phases of violent contestation and sweeping geographical reconfiguration. Many dynasties, moreover, show a pattern of alternation between centralising and regionalising phases. In Europe, never unified under one single political or religious authority, the same patterns can be observed on the smaller-scale level of its dynastic mosaic. Traditionally, Europe and China were seen as opposites, with China standing for unity, harmony, and continuity, Europe for division, competition and dynamism. Echoes of this view can still be found in debates on the ‘rise of the West’ and to some extent they reflect real differences. However, such essentialist perspectives on European and Asian history tend to be self-confirmatory; they can be re-examined only by adopting a radically different approach based on focused comparison of well-defined themes. Comparative history has been practiced largely at the level of secondary sources within a restricted field of languages: it almost inevitably reproduces clichés of the older literature. Mastering the languages and research traditions of Chinese as well as European history reaches beyond the lifespan and capabilities of most individual scholars. By bringing together specialists studying the connections between dynastic centres and the territories formally under their sway, mostly in Late Imperial China and Early Modern Europe, this volume explores the uncharted path towards comparison at a different level. The concentrated and detailed chapters are not themselves comparative in nature, but they powerfully suggest the intellectual potential of combining a global scope with a keen awareness of the complications of local sources. This introduction outlines the themes under scrutiny; an epilogue elaborates some of the consequences of the contributions assembled here for further comparative research in this field. Powers wax and wane – not only in terms of territorial scope but also in the degree to which the centre can control the provinces. Imperial centres can command respect and extract tribute without actively governing outlying regions; as soon as the authority of the centre wanes, however, tributaries tend to drift away. Loss of control and political cohesion threatens even modern states supported by a technology of communication and infrastructures beyond the wildest imagination of any pre-modern ruler. How could leaders hope to secure the acquiescence of populations they ruled, particularly in remote areas? This classic question, examined at length in Max Weber’s influential typology of power, can be answered in many ways. Three different ingredients figure in most durable political arrangements, albeit in variously proportioned combinations: coercion, interests, and ideals. It is difficult to conceive of any political constellation binding together a variety of groups and territories without 1) the threat of violent retribution, 2) the promise of material rewards, and 3) the appeal to shared values and ideas. The French Revolution expanded greatly the potential of states in each of these respects, a development enhanced by a sequence of technological breakthroughs. Not only did the revolution entail a sharp polarisation of political ideas and an upsurge of popular political action; it also caused an explosion of the repressive apparatus, adopted voluntarily by restoration monarchs. The growth of state power throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries went hand in hand with a differentiating and expanding agenda of state activities, and – in democratic regimes – with a rise in the numbers of voters and stakeholders. The protracted phase of change from the final decades of the ancien régime into our contemporary world powerfully suggested a more linear view of history; it has also shaped our perception of pre-revolutionary forms of power. Post-revolutionary critique underlined the omnipotence and arbitrariness of monarchical government as well as its disregard for the interest of its peoples. The legacies of dynastic power, in the form of palaces, images, and texts, likewise suggested strength, inflated self-importance, and detachment from public needs. With the demise of the moral underpinning of monarchical rule, it became difficult to differentiate its religious-hierarchical mandate from blatant abuse and self-enrichment. Amidst mostly negative associations one appreciative note remained: monarchy had triumphed over feudal anarchy and baronial power. In the national historiographies of Europe, particularly of France, monarchy appeared as an intermediate stage, with rulers laying the groundwork for the modern state by subduing their overmighty noble subjects. This overstated and one-sided view of royal power firmly dominated European history textbooks until recently. A gradual revision of European ‘absolutism’ took shape in the last decades of the twentieth century largely on the basis of research in archives that added regional and elite perspectives to the top-down monarchical view. The language of fidelity and subservience went together with a keen defence of local corporate interests. While the monarchical state harshly punished open defiance, it accepted regional elites as necessary partners in government, as a rule accommodating local interests and rights. At the heart of the monarchical state a similar pattern predominated: open challenges were never tolerated, but loyal supporters were granted extensive rights. The household, long understood as a gilded cage where once-powerful nobles were captured in a contest for vain honours, was never wholly detached from governance. Louis XIV’s successful attempt to attach the highest nobles to his court by rewarding them with prestigious offices and privileges created an aristocratic stronghold that would persist until the revolution. The rulers themselves, whether strong or weak, relied at least a part of their lives on the support and advice of confidants in their domestic environment. In addition to the qualification of the reach and force of royal power, it has become clearer that dynastic rulers, too, cherished a moral view of their responsibilities, even if in practice they often ignored the dictates of their mandate. The tension between the practices outlined in Machiavelli’s The Prince and the moral code voiced in numerous princely mirrors reflects the Janus-faced nature of political action in general. Can this process of revision profitably be extended to Chinese dynastic power? The European perception of Asian dynastic constellations was encumbered not only by the generic legacies of revolution and dynastic propaganda: in addition it has been plagued by the clichés of ‘Oriental despotism’. While omnipotence, arbitrariness, luxury, and decadence can be found among the negative connotations of European dynastic rule, they have dominated the European view of Asian rulers from Montesquieu to Wittfogel. Montesquieu’s typology of the leading principles of despotism (fear), monarchy (honour), and republic (virtue), to some extent reflect the three categories outlined above: coercion, interests, and ideals. His understanding of monarchy, based on the distribution of ‘honours’ in the sense of advantages and titles as much as on the principle of honour, comes close to material interests. Montesquieu located the republican principle of virtue in antiquity and actually could no longer trace it in the republics of eighteenth-century Europe. The empires of Asia, finally, served as his main example of despotic rule based on fear. Montesquieu did not accept his Jesuit contemporaries’ appreciative view of China’s government and failed to see honour and virtue among the Chinese, ‘à qui’, he stressed, ‘on ne fait rien faire qu’à coups de baton’. Traditional Chinese dynastic histories, written from the perspective of the scholarly elite of officials, gave pride of place to wise advisers admonishing the emperor – their ideal role. On the whole, however, they too have underlined the unchallen¬geable powers of the emperor, corrupted only under weaker emperors by the malicious influence of eunuchs and dowagers – the scholars’ inner-court rivals. Will different sources, at court or in the regions, bring to light different perspectives? An abundant harvest of recent literature tends to answer affirmatively. The relatively small imperial magistracy ruling over huge and populous territories forcefully suggests that power necessarily was based on local co-operation and co-optation. At court, strong emperors wielding power actively and weaklings reigning without ruling can both be expected to have been influenced by their confidants and restrained by the accumulation of ritual responsibilities. No emperor escaped entirely from the pressures and restrictions dictated by his office and its socio-cultural embedding. This preliminary discussion outlines some of the issues behind the initiative culminating in this volume: 1) One of the key questions of government can be found in the changing relationship between a political centre and the provinces under its authority. 2) The post-revolutionary stress on coercion as the key element in pre-modern dynastic states or empires needs to be re-examined, allowing more room for the interplay of coercion, interests and ideals. 3) The revision of ‘absolutism’ in the European context and the reconfiguration of the history of European dynastic states on the basis partly of new source materials raise the question to what extent these changing interpretations are relevant for Asian dynastic states and empires, notably Late Imperial China. 4) Recent publications on dynastic power in Late Imperial Chinese history likewise suggest a revision of traditional images of dynastic power – can they be understood as converging with European revisionism? Only by bringing together specialists on European and Chinese history can we hope to effectively start answering such questions. Our effort took shape in two meetings, the first concentrating on occasions where rulers visited the regions or met regional representatives, the second focusing on persons representing the ruler in the provinces. These two poles form the sections of the current book: agents & interactions. While this introduction outlines the general themes of this volume, a more extensive and probing opening chapter by Jürgen Osterhammel examines the patterns recurring in the history of the ruler’s most eminent representatives. For some rulers traveling could substitute for the appointment of local agents. Dynastic rule long retained a mobile character, following a seasonal-liturgical-political calendar of movement. Most Early Modern European courts developed a single prominent winter residence but usually travelled to a sequence of hunting lodges in spring, summer, and early autumn. No Early Modern European court refrained from travel altogether – even the French court after its installation in Versailles moved to Fontainebleau for a six-week sojourn every autumn and undertook shorter trips to various other palaces. These patterns echoed the tradition of Reisekönigtum, in which the ruler himself moved from province to province, being hosted by his various regional stalwarts who at the same time confirmed their loyalty. From the later seventeenth century onwards, however, most European monarchies could rely on a more developed system of regional government, reducing the political necessity for travel – or placing it on the shoulders of regional representatives, who in turn were expected to report to the centre. Chinese emperors had long since established a sedentary court in their various capitals, but this did not prevent them from moving on hunting expeditions, inspection tours, or visits to dynastic tombs and important shrines. The late Ming emperors were notorious homebodies, hiding behind the moat and walls of the Forbidden City, some to the point of refusing to face their outer-court officials. Conversely, their Qing successors proved more mobile, sometimes to the point of provoking the classic admonitions of their Confucian advisers. Clearly in Early Modern Europe and in Late Imperial China the rulers’ travels were an addition to, rather than a replacement for, a system of regional administration. Apparently, a network of regional agents supported by a system of government by paper, highly developed in the Chinese case and rapidly gaining pace in most European countries, did not necessarily take away the need to meet in person. The feudal hierarchy of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation still expected vassals to perform an act of homage to the emperor, although this ritual was increasingly performed by proxies. The highest office-holders in France pledged their oath to the king in person, ‘entre les mains de sa majesté’. All European dynastic rulers expected a share of their elites to attend ritual highlights and festive occasions, wherever these took place. Personal attendance and notably access into the ruler’s direct proximity retained great importance for elites. The numerous honorary servitors of the European court cultivated their rights of access even if they served at court only haphazardly. The persistent importance of personal interaction, or ‘Anwesenheits¬gesellschaft’, around dynastic rulers was extended into distant territories by sending out representatives who could be seen as the ruler’s alter ego. Ambassadors and viceroys personally performed royalty in the name of their ruler. High-placed personal representatives could operate as the head of a well-developed central administration in the region; often, however, they served first and foremost as a prestigious personal intermediary between the distant ruler and local elites. Most extended empires left room for various arrangements ranging from a closely monitored core territory, via outlying regions with more autonomy, to a frontier based mostly on tributary connections or alliances. The differentiated conditions shaped the forms of interaction and the status and functions of agents. Did rulers distance themselves from the population at large

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Book SynopsisRuslan Grigor'evitch Skrynnikov unfolds the drama of terror under Ivan the Terrible and his oprichnina. He uses new kinds of evidence paying close attention to primary sources. The conflicts between Ivan and the gentry, the crushing of Novgorod autonomy, the ways in which Ivan interpreted his authority and sought to create an alternative base of power in a loyal body of henchmen-followers known as the oprichnina, the alienation of different groups in society from the government, the impoverishment and weakening of whole regions leading to the Time of Troubles are among the themes that Skrynnikov develops. The details of Ivan’s confrontations with those he perceived as opponents, the forms of execution he inflicted on his enemies, the atmosphere of peril and suspicion that he created justify the description of his reign as one of terror, relevant of course to later periods of history with obvious echoes of the Stalinist period.

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Book SynopsisPrince, Pen, and Sword offers a synoptic interpretation of rulers and elites in Eurasia from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. Four core chapters zoom in on the tensions and connections at court, on the nexus between rulers and religious authority, on the status, function, and self-perceptions of military and administrative elites respectively. Two additional concise chapters provide a focused analysis of the construction of specific dynasties (the Golden Horde and the Habsburgs) and narratives of kingship found in fiction throughout Eurasia. The contributors and editors, authorities in their fields, systematically bring together specialised literature on numerous Eurasian kingdoms and empires. This book is a careful and thought-provoking experiment in the global, comparative and connected history of rulers and elites.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements List of Figures, Tables and Map List of Contributors 1 Rulers and Elites in Global History: Introductory Observations  Jeroen Duindam 2 The Court as a Meeting Point: Cohesion, Competition, Control  Jeroen Duindam 3 Not of This World …? Religious Power and Imperial Rule in Eurasia, ca Thirteenth – ca Eighteenth Century  Peter Rietbergen 4 The Warband in the Making of Eurasian Empires  Jos Gommans 5 The People of the Pen: Self-Perceptions of Status and Role in the Administration of Empires and Polities  Maaike van Berkel 6 The Golden Horde, the Spanish Habsburg Monarchy, and the Construction of Ruling Dynasties  Marie Favereau Doumenjou and Liesbeth Geevers 7 Narratives of Kingship in Fictional Literature  Richard van Leeuwen 8 Prince, Pen and Sword: Eurasian Perspectives  Jeroen Duindam Glossary Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn Cultural and Political Imaginaries in Putin’s Russia scholars scrutinise developments in official symbolical, cultural and social policies as well as the contradictory trajectories of important cultural, social and intellectual trends in Russian society after the year 2000. Engaging experts on Russia from several academic fields, the book offers case studies on the vicissitudes of cultural policies, political ideologies and imperial visions, on memory politics on the grassroot as well as official levels, and on the links between political and national imaginaries and popular culture in fields as diverse as fashion design and pro-natalist advertising. Contributors are Niklas Bernsand, Lena Jonson, Ekaterina Kalinina, Natalija Majsova, Olga Malinova, Alena Minchenia, Elena Morenkova-Perrier, Elena Rakhimova-Sommers, Andrei Rogatchevski, Tomas Sniegon, Igor Torbakov, Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, and Yuliya Yurchuk.Table of ContentsContents Notes on Contributors Introduction: Cultural and Political Imaginaries in Putin’s Russia  Niklas Bernsand and Barbara Törnquist-Plewa Part 1: Cultural Policy and Ideological Movements 1 Russia: Culture, Cultural Policy, and the Swinging Pendulum of Politics  Lena Jonson 2 ‘Middle Continent’ or ‘Island Russia’: Eurasianist Legacy and Vadim Tsymburskii’s Revisionist Geopolitics  Igor Torbakov 3 Eduard Limonov’s National Bolshevik Party and the Nazi Legacy: Titular Nations vs Ethnic Minorities  Andrei Rogatchevski Part 2: Memory Politics 4 Constructing the “Usable Past”: the Evolution of the Official Historical Narrative in Post-Soviet Russia  Olga Malinova 5 Dying in the Soviet Gulag for the Future Glory of Mother Russia? Making “Patriotic” Sense of the Gulag in Present-Day Russia  Tomas Sniegon 6 Memory Watchdogs. Online and Offline Mobilizations around Controversial Historical Issues in Russia  Elena Perrier (Morenkova) Part 3: Popular Culture and Its Embeddedness in Politics 7 “Your Stork Might Disappear Forever!”: Russian Public Awareness Advertising and Incentivizing Motherhood  Elena Rakhimova-Sommers 8 Fashionable Irony and Stiob: the Use of Soviet Heritage in Russian Fashion Design and Soviet Subcultures  Ekaterina Kalinina 9 Humour as a Mode of Hegemonic Control: Comic Representations of Belarusian and Ukrainian Leaders in Official Russian Media  Alena Minchenia, Barbara Törnquist-Plewa and Yuliya Yurchuk 10 The Cosmic Subject in Post-Soviet Russia: Noocosmology, Space-Oriented Spiritualism, and the Problem of the Securitization of the Soul  Natalija Majsova Index

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Book SynopsisThe book makes accessible a selection of speeches and television appearances by Fidel Castro during the first two years of the Cuban Revolution. Readers can trace the evolution of this legendary leader’s radical political thought and analyze his extraordinary capacity for overcoming adverse political and ideological circumstances in a constant movement towards a socialist ideal. The work is organized chronologically with introductory presentations prepared by Cuban experts José Bell, Tania Caram and Delia Luisa López and includes a glossary and bibliography. The methodology of this work is original and includes material from 1959 not previously published elsewhere.Table of Contents Preface ix  Translator’s Note xii  Charles McKelvey  Introduction  José Bell Lara, Tania Caram León and Delia Luisa López García  Historical Context  José Bell Lara, Tania Caram León and Delia Luisa López García Part 1: 1959: Year of Liberation  Introduction to 1959: “Year of Liberation”  José Bell Lara, Tania Caram León and Delia Luisa López García  Call to Revolutionary General Strike  The Revolution Begins Now  To Speak the Truth Is the First Duty of All Revolutionaries  We are Revolutionaries Making a Revolution, Revolutionaries in Power!  To Live on Our Knees, Why?  This Law Initiates an Entirely New Stage in Our Economic Life and a Magnificent Future Awaits Our Country  The Cuban People Is an Invincible People  In Cuba, There is a Democracy Where the People Discuss Their Problems Directly  The Entire Nation Stands without Fear  The Working Class and the Cuban Revolution  We have Kept Our Promises to the People Part 2:  Introduction to 1960: “Year of Agrarian Reform”  José Bell Lara, Tania Caram León and Delia Luisa López García  The Revolution Converts Barracks into Schools  The Future of Our Country Necessarily has to Be a Future of Men of Science and Thought  The Choice is Patria o Muerte  Democracy Is This  The Slogan for the People Is: Venceremos!  Latin America Does Not Have the Right to Make a Revolution  Women, the Decisive Factor in the Revolution  Declaration of Havana  Speech in the General Assembly of the United Nations  We Are Going to Establish a System of Collective Revolutionary Watch  The Moncada Program Has been Carried Out Part 3:  Introduction to 1961: “Year of Education”  José Bell Lara, Tania Caram León and Delia Luisa López García  The Revolution Is a Struggle to the Death between the Future and the Past  What the Imperialists Cannot Forgive  Communiques from the Battle at Playa Girón  At Playa Girón, the Country for All has Triumphed  Glossary  Bibliography  Index

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Book SynopsisWith a membership of nearly 90 million, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the world’s largest political party. It is also one of the longest ruling parties in the world and has been able to weather huge challenges caused by the deep transformation of Chinese society as well as the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). Moreover, in recent years, and especially during the era of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the CCP has centralized its grip over Chinese society. This study is intent on depicting major aspects concerning the CCP’s organizational arrangement and explaining some key concepts in the ideological framework constructed by the CCP leadership over time. it is important to take a new and closer look at how the study of the CCP has evolved in terms of themes, concepts, and areas of research. We do so in the following discussion by exploring nine topics: Party organization, cadre management, nomenklatura, cadre advancement and training, Party ideology, Party reform and adaptation, the Party and business, the Party and corruption, and the Party and the law. The intention is not to develop a new theory on how to understand the Party’s role in Chinese society but, rather, to identify key debates, paradigms, and emerging research directions.Table of ContentsThe Chinese Communist Party since 1949: Organization, Ideology, and Prospect for Change  Kjeld Erik Brødsgaard and Chen Gang  Abstract  Keywords  1 From Totalitarian Model to Cultural Emperor  2 Party Organization  3 Cadres and Cadre Management  4 Recruitment, Career Advancement, and Training  5 Party Ideology and Propaganda  6 Party Reform and Adaptation  7 Local Party Work  8 Party and Business  9 Party and Corruption  10 The Party and the Law  11 Conclusion  References

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